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could nestle (photo previous page, top) . This way the piano became a part of the room, not just another object within it. A related problem that we encountered was the need to conceal a 4-in. drain pipe from the second-floor bathroom that ran exposed across the living-room ceiling. The answer was to let a section of the semicircular wall break free as a soffit and swing through the space in a sweeping arc. This not only hid the pipe, it added a dramatic element to the room. To improve the scale and create a more interesting design, we tiered the curving soffit in two parts, and painted the lower portion with the auburn trim color. At the western end of the living room, we built a curved couch in an alcove that looks out onto the woods (photo previous page, lower ri ght) . We framed the couch with 2x lumber, made the seat out of 3/t-in. plywood and made the back with lengths of plywood set at a 15° angle to the seat. Dense urethane furniture foam wraps the exposed edges of the plywood back and seat tween the original roof and the new lowered ceiling. This provided a ledge for a variety of plants that thrive on the abundant light. The cabinets and counters were built to our designs by Breakfast Woodworks, a custom woodworking shop in Branford, Conn. Three colors of textured plastic laminate were used together to create an inlaid pattern that added a rich dimension to the kitchen. Concealed hinges and touch-latches were used so that no hardware would detract from the design. Bull-nosed counter tops provided a more comfortable edge to lean against. The oven, the microwave and In the kitchen, the recessed backs plash circles around the room, across doors (where it changes colors) and even across the ceiling. The mouse-hole shaped cutout at the bottom of the closet doors gives the family cats access to their feeding dishes. and was glued in place with contact cement. We discovered that an electric carving knife was the best way to trim the foam. We decided to upholster the couch with the same carpeting used on the floor, which turned out to be difficult and time-consuming. With the help of a professional carpet installer, we first attached large pieces of carpeting to the wooden frame at the juncture of the seat and the back. As this connection would be subject to the greatest stress, we screwed the carpeting to the plywood and used large washers to ensure that the material wouldn't pull away from the screw heads. These fasteners were hidden well beneath the foam seat and back. Next, the carpet sections were stretched up over the back and down over the seat, then stapled to the plywood. To fit the convex and concave profiles of the seat, we had to add and remove diamond-shaped sections from the carpet. Each of these seams was then hand-stitched. A continuous bank of casement windows surrounds the couch. Heat is provided by elements hidden behind the couch. To create a feeling of intimacy, we lowered the ceiling above the sitting area. Fluorescent fixtures in the ceiling are concealed behind five linencovered panels, built to the same dimensions as the casement windows. Made with narrow strips of clear pine, the light grills are hinged to swing down when bulbs need replacing. The existing walls enclosing the basement stairs formed a disruptive corner in the middle of the living area. To soften this sharp edge and ease us around the corner, we installed a series of semicircular shelves verti- 62 Fine Homebuilding cally up the wall along this edge (photo previous page, top) . To avoid brackets or other visible support hardware, we attached shelves to a sheet of medium-density fiberboard (MDF), using lag bolts. Once assembled, the board was screwed to the studs and finished as if it were a piece of drywall. Kitchen and dining area-As Jeff and I discussed the kitchen and dining areas, my overriding concern was that I not to be isolated from the rest of the house when preparing meals. So we created a large opening between the kitchen and the rest of the house. In the dining room, built-in cabinets flank this opening providing space for stereo equipment and a wet bar. Each of the cabinet doors is mounted on special hybrid hardware (available from Accuride Division, Standard Precision Inc., 12311 S. Shoemaker Ave., Santa Fe Springs, Calif. 90670) that combines drawer slides and hinges. This allows the doors to be opened 90° and slid into pockets along the sides of the cabinet, getting the doors out of the way. The original kitchen had been the largest room in the old farmhouse; ours would be one of the smallest. We made it long and narrow, with counters and cabinets running the length of room on both sides (photo previous page, lower left) and added a large diamond-shaped skylight to flood the space with natural light. We dropped the ceiling to a height of 7-ft. 6 in. and made a 6-ft. dia. circular opening in it to admit light from the skylight. Then we finished off the underside of the roof rafters and left open the space be- even the toaster are built into the wall. We couldn't find a new dishwasher and refrigerator that would fit in with the colors we'd chosen for the walls and cabinets, so we refinished our old ones. The dishwasher was easi ly modified by cutting laminate panels and installing them in place of the painted steel inserts in the door. An appliance refinisher prepared a custom color to match our laminate, and spraypainted the refrigerator. Oak flooring runs throughout the kitchen. After a number of unsatisfactory experiments with standard floor stains, we ended up using a thinned mixture of the same green paint we had used on the kitchen walls, followed by four coats of satin polyurethane. The wood picked up just enough of the wall color to blend with the overall design. To avoid the typical surface-mounted back- splash, we recessed the backsplash into the wall. As we wondered how to terminate this detail, we realized we didn't need to. The backsplash sails off the end of the counters and continues along the wall, making its way around the entire kitchen as a decorative stripe, running into and out of the coat closet, up the wall, across the ceiling and finally back down the wall to meet up with itself once again (photo above) . As space once occupied by tools became the new home for our other possessions, we found that a sense of joy and repose had been added to our lives. But we also realized that we had made no provisions for our two cats , who had followed us from room to room during the construction. This was easily resolved by making a semicircular cutout in the bottom of the coat-closet door, which created a passage for them into their own home. Sherril Santo is a principle in C. Jeffrey Small and Associates, which has recently relocated to Seattle, Wash. Photos by Paul Ferrino, except where noted. 0